They Dance Alone: Gender

in the Chilean Transition to

Democracy
By Hillary Hiner
The last half of the twentieth century witnessed the rise and fall
of numerous authoritarian regimes. Many social scientists have
increasingly sought to understand them, and particularly how and why
they collapse, to be replaced by democratic regimes. Methodologies
and theories have proliferated as the literature on transitions has
increased. The more recent of these, although still recognizing the
inherent limitations set by internal and external pressures, move
beyond the purely structural in order to emphasize the agency of
actors, such as elites or social movement groups, who participate in
transitions. While work of this type is now common, especially in
political science, I have increasingly come to realize that there is a
gendered aspect to transitology that has been largely overlooked in
the literature. While some studies have attempted to analyze womencentered groups in the transition process, which may or may not have
organized around gender-exclusive issues, I would like to go beyond
the analysis of particular social movement groups. I want to be able
to speak not just of women as actors who participate in transition, but
also of the gendered process of transition itselfhow constructions of
masculine and feminine are played out in this context.
In order to explore this idea of a gendered transition, I have
attempted in this article to do three things. The first is to flesh out this

3 Anamesa

idea of a gendered transitionwhere has gender analysis already

been used in transition literature and how might using gender as an
analytical tool prove useful to our overall understanding of transitions
away from authoritarian rule? The second is to present a case study
of a victim-centered human rights group, Agrupacin de Familiares
de Detenidos Desaparecidos (Organization of Family Members of
Disappeared Detained Persons; Agrupacin for short), as it relates to
the overall discussion of reading for gender in the Chilean transition.
Finally, I will discuss ways in which my case study might suggest a
new paradigm within transitology literature, and to reflect on possible
work that this paradigm shift could lead to.

Reading for Gender

One starting point for a gender analysis of transitions might be to
interpret authoritarian regimes as patriarchal institutions, as perhaps
the ultimate expression of masculinist discourse. While an in-depth
analysis of authoritarianism is beyond the scope of this article, it is
important for my discussion to sketch a few general characteristics
of their make-up and organization. Authoritarian regimes are usually
almost entirely male, at least in their most visible occupations and
leadership positions, and can usually be divided into a number of
subtypes. One commonly cited type has been termed sultanistic,
because the dictator presides from the apex of a pyramidally structured
state. His rule is often flexible and capricious, as he his not constrained
by other institutions.1 Another frequently mentioned type is the
institutionalized or bureaucratic2 regime, wherein authoritarian
rule is codified and legalized within some kind of constitutional
or legislative order and is supported by a sizable bureaucracy. The

The Democracy Issue 4

military plays a key role in both of these types, especially in Latin

America.
Whatever the regimes composition, the womans role in
authoritarian discourse is generally limited to that of wife and mother,
as the reproducer of traditional (read authoritarian) values in the
home.3 This message is often transmitted through state-sponsored
mothers organizations that distribute goods and services, and
through national campaigns that focus on womens importance
in creating the new state, both through educating themselves and
their families. Women are expected to respect and defer to male
representatives of the authoritarian state as daughters as they are
in patriarchal father-daughter and husband-wife relationships, and
to reproduce these dependent relationships through proper home
discipline and teaching. Transgressions of this patriarchal, authoritarian
order can include, but are not limited to, divorce, abortion, family
planning, sexual promiscuity, single motherhood, women working
outside of the home, homosexuality, and feminism, depending on the
specific gender norms of a given society and which of these norms a
given authoritarian regime decides to actively police, in both a literal
and figurative sense.
It is important to note that the authoritarian project, while
masculinist in nature, does not preclude womens participation.
Indeed, many women, due to their political, social, or economic
orientations, may in fact favor a regime that does little to further
womens interests or rights. Regardless of gender, if an individual feels
that he or she is benefiting from a political system, be it authoritarian
or democratic, there will usually be little grounds for rebellion. But if
the political order is not meeting his or her needs, there will be at
least the possibility of dissent. What is relevant to my argument here is
that the unfulfilled needs that are most likely to result in a grievance

5 Anamesa

against the state are precisely those that socio-cultural codes and/or
historic necessity have defined as womens primary responsibility.
Lack of food, potable water, shelter, and clothing affects the entire
community, but when it comes to mobilizing around these issues it is
commonly women who are at the forefront. In addition, human rights
abuses, while clearly not gender specific, are also often denounced
most visibly by groups primarily made up of women.
This is not to say that men do not participate in communitybased groups or human rights groupsthey do and in great numbers
but when reviewing the literature on social movement groups in Latin
America it is impossible not to get the sense that the primary motor of
resistance is female. While this may be due to the feminist movements
influence on the social sciences and new currents within various
disciplines that seek to uncover subaltern actors, social movement
literature has attributed womens primacy in these groups to a number
of other factors: (1) men are more likely to be persecuted for any
activities even minimally political; (2) men, as breadwinners, have
neither the time nor the financial freedom to take on time-consuming
acts of resistance, many of which may take place during the workday;
and (3) women, by nature, are somehow more adept at communicating
with authoritarian state officials, and, if rebuked, are better able to
mobilize gender-based strategies to shame a regime into making
concessions. These gender-based strategies have even been identified
by some scholars as signaling not only a new approach to resisting and
contesting authoritarian rule, but also as a means of reconceptualizing
civil society and citizenship in democratic nation-statesa third
way that goes beyond male-dominated representative democracy
and patriarchal authoritarian mores. Discussion of this third way
was prevalent in many texts dealing with social movements in Latin
America in the 1980s, but fell from grace within academic circles as

The Democracy Issue 6

this strategy became less important in newly democratic states marked

by the reactivation of party politics.
However, there was always a catch to this third way: it
was often closely identified with supposed biological and emotional
characteristics of feminine organizations, emphasizing their ability
to persevere in the face of repression, to listen attentively to citizens
needs and demands, and to demand goods and services from the state
in the name of their traditional mother/wife role. The pro-democracy
culture of life is juxtaposed with the authoritarian culture of death
in such a way that the womans biological capacity to give life and
her supposedly inherent tendency to sacrifice her life for others come
to legitimate groups made up of women. This kind of politics has
been termed motherist in the literature that deals with womens
mobilization under authoritarian rule in Latin America. This reflects
both the importance of the mother/wife role and the fact that many
of these texts, especially the earlier ones, used the Madres (Mothers)
de Plaza de Mayo of Argentina as their case study. In an effort to
problematize this motherist classification and in order to more
fully delve into other gender-related transitology issues, I will next
present a case study of a human rights group in Chile often considered
analogous to the Madres in Argentina.

A Member Does Not Choose to Join Agrupacin4

Prior to the September 11, 1973, military coup, Chile was one of the
few Latin American countries with a pronounced history of democratic
stability, reinforced by a cultural and political tradition of legalism
and consensus that promoted change through the established political
and electoral system. Much of this disintegrated during the profound

7 Anamesa

political polarization preceding the coup, as Chilean society divided

along class lines and violence escalated dramatically. When the
military stepped in to restore civil order, it was as swift and brutal as
the Hawker Hunter jets that bombed La Moneda, Chiles presidential
palace, where Salvador Allende, Chiles democratically elected
president, had taken his own life moments after delivering his final
speech over the radio. The disappearing of leftist adversaries, and
those suspected of being associated with the left, was a key strategy
of the military dictatorships that took control in Latin America in the
late 1960s and 1970s, such as in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, and
Chile was no exception. The Agrupacin de Familiares de Detenidos
Desaparecidos formed in 1974 to protest the disappearance of family
members by the military. Based in Santiago, Chiles capital, but with
branches throughout the country, Agrupacin fought, and continues to
fight, for truth and justice and the protection of human rights. Since
the transition to democracy in Chile, which I explore more thoroughly
below, Agrupacin has changed significantly, but their indomitable will
to hold the military dictatorship accountable for human rights abuses
and disappearances has not faltered.5
Disappearances took place in varied and nefarious ways. In the
weeks following September 11, the military, police, and like-minded
civilians took part in widespread operations throughout Chile to round
up and interrogate citizens identified as leftists. The most infamous of
these took place in Santiago, where police invaded neighborhoods and
shantytowns in allanamientos (raids), taking suspected subversives
to the Estadio Nacional or the Estadio Chile for interrogation. Most
detainees were severely beaten and tortured, while some of them were
executed or disappeared. Other regions of the country, identified
by the military junta as strategic, were targeted, such as the copperrich north and areas of the south politicized under Allendes radical

The Democracy Issue 8

land reform. The total number of deaths and disappearances by state

agents in Chile is difficult to ascertain, but has been estimated at
between 3,500 and 4,500.6 As the dictatorship progressed, repression
became more selective and institutionalized, and covert groups were
created within military branches, such as the Direccin Nacional de
Inteligencia (National Intelligence Directorate, or DINA) in the army
and the Comando Conjunto in the air force, in order to specialize in
the systematic torture and murder of subversives. Investigations
have since proved that many desaparecidos either died during torture
sessions or were executed by firing squad. Their bodies were dumped
in mass graves or dropped out of helicopters over the Pacific Ocean
with weights attached to guard against their possible resurfacing both
in the literal sense of washing up on shore and also perhaps in the more
abstract sense of not floating up to the surface of Chilean collective
memory.
Agrupacin was one of the first organizations formed in
response to the military regimes crimes. Brought together by a
common tragedy, Agrupacin members took legal and political action,
presenting habeas corpus in the courts in order to locate their missing
loved ones and recording details of disappearances in the Vicara de
la Solidaridad (Vicariate of Solidarity), formed by Chilean archbishop
Cardinal Ral Silva Henrquez under the auspices of the Catholic
Church. Those Chileans sympathetic to the human rights cause saw
these actswithin the context of heavy authoritarian repression and its
culture of silenceas incredibly risky and courageous. As Agrupacin
became increasingly better organized and more confident, they began
to stage large, public protests accompanied by black-and-white photos
of disappeared family members, commonly either hoisted up as posters
posted to sticks or attached in some way to their bodies. Common
chants demanded that the victims aparezcan con vida (appear with

9 Anamesa

life, i.e., be released from detention alive) and defied the state with
Dnde estn? (Where are they?).
Furthermore, Agrupacin participated in hunger
strikes, romeras (pilgrimages to politically charged sites), and
encadenamientos (demonstrations in which members chained
themselves to public buildings) during the 1970s and 1980s. The first
two hunger strikes took place in June and December of 1977 at the
Santiago offices of the U.N. Economic Commission on Latin American
and the Caribbean and at the centrally located, colonial San Francisco
church. The most famous hunger strike, known as La Huelga de
Hambre Larga (the Long Hunger Strike), took place in response to the
1978 Amnesty Law, which guaranteed impunity to anyone guilty of
crimes committed during the state-of-siege periods between September
11, 1973, and March 10, 1978. Agrupacin began the hunger strike
with a press statement: We cannot accept more aberrations; we
cannot put up with more waiting. We declare this new hunger strike
convinced that risking our lives is the most extreme method that, by
demonstrating our unreserved love for our [loved ones], will allow us
to reach the truth.7 The hunger strike lasted for seventeen days until
the Catholic Church intervened on behalf of the protesters, whose
health had badly deteriorated, and persuaded them that the goal of
raising public awareness had been achieved. When the hunger strike
ended, 186 people in thirteen different locations in Chile had joined in,
together with sixty hunger strikes held abroad in solidarity.
Like the hunger strikes, encadenamientos also represented the
sacrifice of the Agrupacin members body in an effort to publicize the
cause and to pressure the military into disclosing the desaparecidos
whereabouts. The most renowned encadenamiento took place on April
18, 1979, when fifty-nine Agrupacin members chained themselves
to the National Congress in downtown Santiago in protest of the

The Democracy Issue 10

Amnesty Law and a government investigation of recently discovered

bodies that amounted to a cover-up. 8 During the protest many of the
demonstrators, mostly female, began to sing the national anthem.
When the police stepped in to arrest them, male police officers cut the
womens chains, insulting, pushing, and clubbing them as they hauled
them off in patrol wagons. This produced a gendered performance
linking the women of Agrupacin not only to the desaparecidos, but
also to the pro-democracy movement; the women had metaphorically
and literally bound themselves to the return of democracy in Chile,
symbolized in the abandoned National Congress building, which had
been closed by the military junta.
Agrupacin also participated in romeras, or pilgrimages,
the most famous of which was to Lonqun, and in lightning protests
at many public places, including torture centers. The group also
denounced the military regime through gendered cultural acts, such as
sewing politically themed arpilleras (folkloric tapestries), composing
songs, and dancing in the Conjunto Folclrico, most famously in their
performance of the cueca solaa version of the Chilean national
dance, the cueca, without the male partner (or sola, alone).9 The cueca
sola came to be emblematic of the group, especially after the British
pop star Sting internationally publicized Agrupacins cause in his
1987 single They Dance Alone (Cueca Sola).
Although at least seventy-two women were disappeared
during the dictatorship and many more suffered horribly in detention
centers,10 when discussing the relatives of the disappeared in Chile it
is primarily female relatives of male disappeared that we are talking
about.11 In interviews with me, Agrupacin members explanations for
this echoed those of the social movements literature cited abovefor
example, that men generally distanced themselves from familyoriented groups such as Agrupacin for personal-safety and economic

11 Anamesa

reasons (they had to put food on the table) or that women were seen to
be taking the symbolic place of activist men who had been disappeared.
Patricia Recabarren Gonzlez, who, like her mother, is active in the
group in the name of five disappeared family members (her father,
two brothers, her sister-in-law, and her sister-in-laws unborn child),12
recalled in 2002, During the dictatorship there was also the idea that
a woman was softer, that if a man went [to protest] he was going to
be taught better [by the military regime]. It was a way of protecting
the men. For example, in my family it was my mother who took up
the banner of those who had disappeared. There were four sons in
my family and two disappeared, and neither of the other two is in
Agrupacin.13 Patricias mother, Ana Gonzlez, expressed her feelings
to me about her involvement in the group slightly differently: I was
left alone to search for them. First with anguish and desperation and
a tremendous abandonment Where could they be detained, and
whats more, could I save their lives? It was a desperate, anguished
struggle, but also one full of courage. It didnt even matter to me
whether or not I lived; it was a question of love.14 Throughout the
interview Doa Ana repeatedly and emotionally talked about her
commitment as a mother and as a wife, although she also talked about
her previous experience in neighborhood political organizing during
the time of Allende and activities as an Agrupacin member, which
often took her out of the home to protest in the streets of Santiago and
abroad.
The experiences of Doa Ana and Doa Patricia, and of others
in the group whom I had the privilege to interview, point to a number
of conclusions concerning the women of Agrupacin. First, while some
women in Agrupacin were not previously politicized, many others
(even mothers!) were already at least minimally involved in politics
when the 1973 coup took place. Whether militants in left-leaning

The Democracy Issue 12

political parties or participants in the Popular Unity government

through family or neighborhood ties, these women were not the
politically ignorant mothers that much of the historical literature
on the dictatorship makes them out to be. They mobilized as women,
and not necessarily exclusively as wives or mothers. Second, there
are many Agrupacin members who are daughters or sisters of the
disappeared, and therefore by definition not participating in the group
as wives or mothers. These members involvement, as well as that of
male members, should not be elided when conceptualizing the group.
Third, membership in Agrupacin did and does not preclude militancy
in other political movements, such as pro-democracy, shantytown, or
feminist groups. In addition, it is extremely common for many women
in Agrupacin to be affiliated with a left-leaning political party.15 As
noted feminist scholar Teresa Valds told me in 2002, The women
[of Agrupacin] have not used what we would call the traditional
politics of gender that have been used most definitely in the case of the
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and in the case of the widows in Central
America. Their contribution, she said, was not discursive, but
political, because they so often acted not as wives or daughters, but
as human beings. 16
But it is also true that throughout Latin America the discourse
of many women-led social movements has been shaped by a tendency,
almost a need, to define its goals through the ideological code of
the family, which defines them as primarily responsible for their
husbands, households, and children.17 Even in organizations such
as Agrupacin, in which this gendered image is less prevalent, the
importance of women as givers of life was a key legitimizing discourse
in opposing the dictatorships culture of death. The prevalence of the
wife and mother ideological code in the discourse of groups such as
Agrupacin can be attributed to the widely diffused internalizing of

13 Anamesa

this culturally constructed role among Latin American women. Indeed,

in some instances not to be a wife or mother is considered deviant,
and very few womens groups that do not identify as explicitly
feminist are willing to challenge this construction when trying to
reach their immediate goals. Perhaps that is why Agrupacin clearly
presents a gendered image when interacting with Chilean society, one
that highlights their feminine nature and capitalizes on common
traditional stereotypes in order to legitimize their demands. Although
the women of Agrupacin frequently protest en masse with few males
present, and could therefore be construed as positive examples of
independent women taking action, it is their connection to anotherin
most cases a manthat defines both their appearance and actions.
Even in those cases in which the image is not motherist, the Catholic
image of the suffering woman has strongly influenced Agrupacins
actions over the years. The philosophy of dar la vida por la vida (to
give life for life) has been embedded in Agrupacins discourse since
its inception, and even the hunger strikes and encadenamientos have
their roots not only in the ethos of nonviolent protest, but in idealized
sacrifice of the female body for a greater good, which in the case of the
desaparecidos usually has a male face.
The willingness to sacrifice their own lives as a form of
protest can be seen as a crisis of identity for the female Agrupacin
members, as it was a crisis of conscience for those impacted by their
actions. It was precisely this crisis of conscience that came to be
affiliated with Agrupacinthey are one of the most highly visible
human rights groups in Chilean society, much of which can be
attributed to a certain affective inability to deny the legitimacy of
their cause. It was this legitimacy, paired with their tireless activism,
that contributed to the sea change in Chilean politics that resulted in
the 1988 plebiscite and the ensuing transition to democracy. When

The Democracy Issue 14

looking at Agrupacin, it is important to keep in mind that throughout

the groups history the women of Agrupacin mobilized gendered
strategies for opposing the authoritarian regime while Chilean society
at large was simultaneously formulating gendered readings of their
actions. Having based much of their resistance to authoritarian
rule on binary oppositionslife versus death, democracy versus
authoritarianism, and us (females) versus them (males)Agrupacin
became increasingly difficult to categorize in the post-dictatorial
scenario. Although the transition to democracy opened up new
opportunities for some women who had participated in social
movements during the dictatorship, those who had advocated a third
way were seen as opposed to, and therefore outside of, the traditional,
i.e., male, way of doing politics. The very strategies and identities that
women mobilized during the dictatorship became a liability as party
identities and politics reasserted themselves during the transition.18
The qualities of moral responsibility and nobility of spirit attributed to
Agrupacin membersqualities of traditional femininitydistanced
the organization from a transition and consolidation process that
took place largely on masculine terms, and which often marginalized
the very imperatives that Agrupacin had struggled so valiantly for.
Although Agrupacin has been credited with keeping truth and justice
alive in the national discourse, the feminine coding of its voice has
made it, if not easier to ignore, then certainly less relevant to what has
been defined as a male conversation.19

Writing Her-Story Using His Tools: Suggestions for

Future Work
Through studying Agrupacin, I have attempted to show how

15 Anamesa

an organization primarily made up of women can be interpreted

both in reference to a study of women as actors in transitions
from authoritarianism, as well as how transitions are in and of
themselves often highly dependant on gendered constructions of the
political. I have also attempted to show how reductivist, essentialist
categorizations of womens groups as motherist or as somehow
implicitly feminine limit the researchers ability to explore more fully
a groups impact on political transition. Although some women may
be nurturing, life affirming, and mothering, all of which are qualities
linked to cultural constructions of the feminine, not all women embody
these characteristics. The dichotomous nature of identity construction,
however, often results in an all-too-common discussion of male
and female roles in politics. This models limitations in accurately
portraying womens involvement in political transitions are obvious,
and even more dangerous when considered in the light of what is
considered political in transitology analysis.
In this sense, Agrupacin can help us problematize these strict
divisions because its members embrace the dichotomous concepts of
the traditional and essential femininity while also deconstructing
and reconstructing these same categories. Even though Agrupacin
has consistently refused to be labeled a feminist group, they have
repeatedly and coherently challenged the patriarchal universe of
Chilean politics. While Agrupacin does not promote democracy in
the home in the manner that feminist organizations do, the groups
collective actions in a manner speak for themselves. As independent,
strong, and courageous women, the Agrupacin members went out into
the streets, a public domain, to protest the dictatorship, and in a way
they remain thereever present in the Chilean collective memory of
resistance to the dictatorship.
By relying on a feminine construction, however, Agrupacin

The Democracy Issue 16

is being held accountable, and to a certain extent conforms, to the

limitations of its own existenceof lo posible. While Agrupacin has
proved that women can be a potent force in mass political movements
based on their political relevance and cultural resonance, the group
has also been frozen by the very identity politics that propelled
it to the national stage. In the making of history, Agrupacins
gendered her-story has been downplayed, most notably by the group
itself. They have made an undeniable, valuable, and lasting impact
on Chilean politics, but their experience, as both a human rights
organization and an organization made up primarily of women, also
tells the story of how gendered limitations of definition implicitly
result in marginalization. By working within and actively policing its
exclusively feminine boundaries, Agrupacin has also drawn a line in
the sand between itself and the only (masculine) game in town. Political
and historical differences, based on powerful hierarchies of race,
class, gender, and sexuality, played a crucial role in constructing this
boundary. Challenging these hierarchies by analyzing how they have
been constructed in all areas of political science, including transitology
literature, should be a priority. Indeed, it is a necessity not only for
improving our understanding of authoritarianism and democracy, but
also for our effort to use this information to construct a more just and
truly democratic social and political order.

Notes
1

H.E. Chehabi and Juan J. Linz, eds., Sultanistic Regimes (Baltimore: Johns

Hopkins University Press, 1998).

2

Guillermo ODonnell, Bureaucratic Authoritarianism: Argentina 19661973

in Comparative Perspective (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988).

3

The most glaring exception comes from the former Soviet Bloc countries,

17 Anamesa

where women were also vigorously incorporated into the workforce. However,
even in these countries it is possible to detect a similar pattern of subjugating
women to the idealized concept of Woman who sacrifices herself for the nation
and serves as the states vessel for transmitting its value system. In effect, the
only difference was that she was now responsible for living up this image not
only at home, but also at her place of work.
4

Agrupacin members commonly said this during interviews I did with them

in January 2002. Note: all Spanish translations are mine.

5

For an account of Agrupacins history and current activities as written by

their members see their website, www.afdd.cl, and Viviana Diaz Caro et al.,
Un camino de imgenes: 20 aos de historia de la Agrupacin de Familiares
de Detenidos Desaparecidos de Chile (Santiago: Corporacin Agrupacin de
Familiares de Detenidos Desparecidos, 1997).
6

Steve J. Stern, Remembering Pinochets Chile: On the Eve of London, 1998

(Durham: Duke University Press, 2004), xxi and relevant endnotes.

7

Alejandra M. Lpez Muoz, Nuestra lucha por la verdad: Mujeres familiares

detenidos-desaparecidos, Chile 19731983. Thesis ( Santiago: Catholic

University of Chile, 1998), 52.
8

On November 30, 1978, the Vicara sent a special committee to Lonqun in

order to verify statements made that human remains had been found there. In
December 1978 it was found that the remains belonged to fifteen men who
had disappeared in 1973. This led to an investigation and burial process that
provoked massive outrage with the governments attempt to cover up evidence
of wrongdoing. On April 4, 1979, the case was handed over to the military
courts, which was then a virtual guarantee that no further action would be
taken.
9

The cueca is a type of music and dance that originated in nineteenth-century

Chile, and is commonly performed during Independence Day festivals. The

steps are usually divided into three phases, wherein the man and woman circle
each other and come together while the women twirl white handkerchiefs.

The Democracy Issue 18

11

This is problematic since, as Marjorie Agosn postulates, When women

are made invisible in discussions of government abuses and torture, dissident

politics is implicitly masculine and the crucial role women have played in
opposing repression is marginal. Marjorie Agosin, ed., Surviving Beyond
Fear: Women, Children and Human Rights in Latin America (Fredonia, NY:
White Pine Press, 1993), 18.
12

Manuel Guillermo Recabarren Gonzlez and his pregnant wife, Nalvia Rosa

Mena Alvarado, were taken by the DINA on April 29, 1976. The following
day Manuels brother, Luis Emilio, and his father, Manuel Segundo, were
also disappeared. For the full story, as well as the stories of many other
desaparecidos, see the Agrupacin website.
13

Interview with author, Santiago, Chile; January 8, 2002.

14

Interview with author, Santiago, Chile; January 16, 2002.

15

Agrupacin members usually work within in the Socialist Party (PS), the

Partido por la Democracia (Party for Democracy, or PPD), or the Communist

Party (PC), although a minority are affiliated with the Christian Democrats
(DC). Interestingly, however, in both the Chilean media and public opinion,
Agrupacin is strongly affiliated solely with the PC. Indeed, in my own
research many scholars mentioned to me informally that this perceived link
may have contributed to marginalizing Agrupacin from the Chilean political
scenario, as the PC excluded from the Concertacin coalition (made up of the
PS, the PPD, and the DC), which has governed Chile since the transition to
democracy.
16

Interview with author, Santiago, Chile; January 11, 2002.

17

I am here borrowing Dorothy Smiths concept of the Standard North

American Family (SNAF) as an ideological code, which she defines as, a

schema that replicates its organization in multiple and various sites it
is a constant generator of procedures for selecting syntax, categories, and
vocabulary in the writing of texts and the production of talk and for interpreting
sentences, written or spoken, ordered by it The [SNAF] is an ideological

19 Anamesa

code in this sense. It is a conception of The Family as a legally married couple

sharing a household. The adult male is in paid employment; his earnings
provide the economic basis of the family-household. The adult female may
also earn an income, but her primary responsibility is to the care of husband,
household, and children. Dorothy Smith, Writing the Social (University of
Toronto Press, 1999), 159
18

Jane S. Jaquette and Sharon L. Wolchik, eds., Women and Democracy

(Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1998).

19

This idea is based upon Mara Elena Valenzuelas statement on women in

the transition: Political rhetoric and practices remain traditional, and there
is no social recognition of the need to integrate women politically. Instead,
there is some general support for women on the grounds that women dignify
politics because of their superior ethical standards. With this bias, for women
to play this political role in arenas where ethical standards are not highly
honored means by definition that they will be marginalized. Women and the
Democracy Project in Chile, in Ibid., 7.

The Democracy Issue 20